Page:Anatomy of the Human Body (1918).djvu/55

Rh In reptiles, birds, and many mammals the allantois becomes expanded into d, "vesicle which projects into the extra-embryonic celom. If its further development be traced in the bird, it is seen to project to the right side of the embryo, and, gradually expanding, it spreads over its dorsal surface as a flattened sac between the amnion and the serosa, and extending in all directions, ultimately surrounds the yolk. Its outer wall becomes applied to and fuses with the serosa, which lies immediately inside the shell membrane. Blood is carried to the allantoic sac by

Fig 24.— Diagram showing earliest observed stage of human ovum. Fig 25.— Diagram illustrating early formation of allantois and dififerentiation of body-stalk.

the two allantoic or umbilical arteries, which are continuous with the primitive aortæ, and after circulating through the allantoic capillaries, is returned to the primitive heart by the two umbilical veins. In this way the allantoic circulation, which is of the utmost importance in connection with the respiration and nutrition of the chick, is established. Oxygen is taken from, and carbonic acid is given up to the atmosphere through the egg-shell, while nutritive materials are at the same time absorbed by the blood from the yolk. Fig. 26.—Diagram showing later stage of allantoic development with commencing constriction Fig. 27.—Diagram showing the expansion of amnion and delimitation of the umbilicus.

In man and other primates the nature of the allantois is entirely different from that just described. Here it exists merely as a narrow, tubular diverticulum of the hind-gut, and never assumes the form of a vesicle outside the embryo. With the formation of the amnion the embryo is, in most animals, entirely separated from the chorion, and is only again united to it when the allantoic mesoderm spreads over and becomes applied to its inner surface. The human embryo, on the other hand, as was pointed out by His, is never wholly separated from the chorion, its